Harley's Automatic Feeder.

First we created Chika's private and secure dining room but Harley felt left out. It was also hard to go out of town because even though we could put several days of meals in Chika's bowl and she would eat a little each day, Harley had more of my kind of appetite (if there is still food in the bowl I'd better keep eating).

 

So Bob went to work. The garage view of the set up isn't fancy but unfortunately it's the most organized part of our garage.

 

The pink container is water for both of the dogs. The long contraption to the left (PVC pipe, plumbing hardware, cereal dispenser) holds Harley's food.

 

 

 

On the other side of the wall is a little room off of the kitchen. A 3" pipe comes through the wall into a recess under the counter and delivers Harley's food. Do you want to know where Harley is at 5:54am every morning? She is sitting with her eyes on that recess waiting for the food to drop. To the right of the recess is a spigot (actually made for watering pigs). The hose from the water container comes through the wall and is attached to this spigot. The water is gravity fed when the dogs bump their tongues against the spigot.

Chika drinking and Harley eating. 



Problem - Solution

What to do when you have one hefty dog who will eat all day (if food is out) and one skinny dog who eats a little here and there?  They Hefty dog always bullied the little dog out of her food unless we kept an eagle eye.




This is our solution

We purchased a clear bin so Chika wouldn't feel claustrophobic when she is eating. We glued her bowl to the bottom of the lid because at first she would scoot it all around. If it was near the mouse hole at one end of the bin, Harley was able to fit her head in and eat Chika's food.

One day when I tossed the bed up on the bin and when I turned around Harley was settled in. So now the dog bed has a place on top of Chika's dining room.

 
There is only one problem with this arrangement. Chika often brings a mouthful of food out and drops it in front of Harley. I guess she wants to share. Either that or it's extortion on Harley's part. In the 2 months since we have made this Harley has dropped back to her normal weight.